1. Simile
A plumber spends all day
 You were as brave as a lion.
 They fought like cats and dogs.
2. Metaphor
 John's suggestion was just a
Band-Aid for the problem.
 The cast on his broken leg was a
plaster shackle.
3. Personification
 Lightning danced across the sky.
 The wind howled in the night.
4. Synecdoche
 The word "sails" is often used to
refer to a whole ship.
 The phrase "hired hands" can be
used to refer to workers.
5. Metonymy
 The pen is mightier than the
sword.
 “Hollywood” is not simply a place
in Southern California.
6. Hyperbole
 He's running faster than the wind.
 This bag weighs a ton.
7. Oxymoron
 “I always avoid prophesying
beforehand because it is much
better to prophesy after the event
has already taken place.”
 “Nothing was stolen. I had an
honest thief.”
8. Paradox
 Your enemy's friend is your
enemy.
 I am nobody.
9. Allusion
 Potato chips are my
diet's Achilles heel.
 Many states have laws that
protect Good Samaritan's.
10. Irony
 Situational Irony Examples:
1. There are roaches infesting the
office of a pest control service.
2.
working on leaky faucets and
comes home to find a pipe
has burst in his home.
 Verbal Irony Examples:
1. Looking at her son's messy
room, Mom says, "Wow, you
could win an award for
cleanliness!"
2. On the way to school, the
school bus gets a flat tire and
the bus driver says, "Excellent!
This day couldn't start off any
better!"
 Dramatic Irony Examples:
1. The audience knows that a
killer is hiding in the closet,
but the girl in the horror movie
does not.
2. The reader knows that a storm
is coming, but the children
playing on the playground do not.
 Examples of Irony in Literature:
1. In Shakespeare's Romeo and
Juliet, the audience/reader
knows that Juliet has faked
her death, but Romeo does
not and he thinks she is really
dead. (dramatic irony)
2. In To Kill a Mockingbird, by
Harper Lee, the main
character Scout goes to school
and is already able to read.
While one would expect a
teacher to be pleased about
that, Scout's teacher does not like
that she is already able to read.
(situational irony)
3. In Pride and Prejudice, by
Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy says of
Elizabeth Bennett that she is
not "handsome enough to tempt
me," but he falls in love with
her in spite of himself.
(verbal irony)
11. Onomatopoeia
 The sheep went, “Baa.”
 The best part about music class
is that you can bang on the drum.
12. Litotes
 He's not the friendliest person.
 It wasn't a terrible trip.
13. Apostrophe
 Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I
wonder what you are.
 Then come, sweet death, and rid
me of this grief.
14. Alliteration
 Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers. ...
 A good cook could cook as much
cookies as a good cook who
could cook cookies.
15. Assonance
 "Hear the mellow wedding bells"
 "I lie down by the side fo my
bride"/"Fleet feet sweep by
sleeping geese"/"Hear the lark
and harden to the barking of the
dark fox gone to ground"
16. Consonance
 She ate seven sandwiches on
a sunny Sunday last year.
 Shelley sells shells by the sea
shells.